Feature

A broad cultural shift is needed to recognize surrogacy is not a “right” but a violation of human dignity and of the rights of women and children, several experts said during an international conference in Rome advocating a universal ban on surrogacy.

For plummeting worldwide fertility rates to change course, people must find courage to “do the hard thing” of raising large families, and that courage comes from faith, said Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, an economist at The Catholic University of America in Washington.

The Alabama Supreme Court’s recent in vitro fertilization ruling is placing a new spotlight on personhood legislation, or legislation that recognizes the unborn child as having the legal rights and protections of a person, experts acknowledge.